The Persimmon Tree
by mistral soul
Summary: When a thief failed to assassinate the Count of Gardios, she was thrown into the world of Terca Lumireis from a strange and violent rainstorm. And then Flynn Scifo happened upon the injured dimension-traveler one night... FlynnxOC
1. A Violent Rainstorm

**The Persimmon Tree  
**_written by mistral soul

* * *

_

Cold stone drenched in spring rainwater remained strong and silent; their fortified souls overlooking the dreary estate of the Gardios Manor. Wet blades of green moved slightly with the dancing raindrops, and boots streaked with muddy filth clenched against the wet soil, feeling and responding to the tension in the air. A breath is drawn in – and then released in a puffy haze of milky white that evaporated almost instantly the moment it left the supple comfort of lips.

A dirtied hood was cast over a hidden figure veiling the stranger's face. The skies belched out another uncomfortable rumble of thunder, and our thief knew time was running short. Quick fingers worked deftly as they reached down to pick up a large stone from the gardens. Meanwhile at the front entrance of the manor estate, a pair of watch guards stood valiantly on guard despite the pouring rain.

No hesitation. A swift strike was all it took to destroy that pitifully poor excuse for a window. Sure, it was a beautiful design, but for a window it was pathetically easy to break into. Slinking inside the house, the cloaked thief glanced around for a quick moment before dashing off into the corridors, leaving behind a noticeabe set of wet footprints that trailed messily behind.

Upon hearing the sound of glass shattering, our two elite guards then broke into a short commotion before running 'round back to see what happened.

Meanwhile, our thief is creeping rather quickly down the hallway, glancing around warily. So many rooms, so little time to choose the right one. When the sounds of footsteps and voices approached ahead, the thief quickly rolled around a dark corner, out of sight, and peered carefully to spy at the surroundings. A pair of maids strode by, chatting animatedly amongst themselves.

"If only Count Gardios would let us wash his back!" One of them sighed heavily as she trudged along with a cart of laundry. She seemed rather lovesick, by the sound of her voice.

"You know about his condition," The other scolded her peer, wagging a finger. "But I have to admit, with the Count's looks; that is one task I can't deny…"

And thus their little gossipy woman wiles continued on, out of sight and eventually, out of earshot. Deciding to move quickly, the thief emerged back from hiding and swiftly raced down the carpeted hallway. Stopping short in front of a set of chamber doors, the window behind the hooded thief's back flashed white from a shriek of lightning and a pale hand reached out to touch the door handle.

"This is it…" A whisper trailed from the hood, and with a quick yet quiet twist, the chamber door was opened.

Stepping into the wide master bedroom, everything was set aside meticulously neat and organized. Heavy drapes with the Malkuth Empire emblem stitched in embroidery hung by the large windows at the far side of the room. The thief quietly closed the door behind him, and stood in the unnerving silence before drawing a blade from beneath his sleeve. The sharp glint of steel caught sight of the weak light; light, that was coming from the rainstorm that had worsened suddenly, as if the world was holding in a breath waiting for something catastrophic to happen right at that very moment.

Striding slowly over to the bedside, the blade slowly extended until one could make out a sharp outline of a stiletto in the thief's hand. But was he really a thief? Valuables and treasures tucked away did not catch his eye. "I feel sorry for you, but that's just life." Raising his arm, he was about to step forwards in a dash to stab his victim in one fell swoop when he jerked to a stop, feeling a cold, sharp edge pressing against his throat.

Cerulean eyes narrowed in the darkness. "Who are you? Who sent you here?" Hovering behind the shorter man with a sleek blade extended aggressively against the assassin whom he has now held captive, Gaillardia Galan Gardios was not an easy man to fall prey to simple and petty thieves, it seems. "Tch…" Gritting his teeth, the assassin lowered his weapon, falling silent.

"Who sent you here to kill me?" Guy pressed again, voice hardening.

Fingers twitched; knives were drawn. "…The one who sent me… was Yulia Jue!" Dropping to the floor before rolling away, the assassin flung out an arm and threw a spade-dagger at the blonde-haired Count. The practised swordsman deflected the dagger, swatting it away within the nick of time. He had reacted a little too late though, still shook up from his attacker's response, and a portion of the dagger nicked his wrist, drawing blood. But in that instant, when steel met steel, a spark ignited the darkness briefly, and a roar of lightning surged in the backdrop, and he whipped out another quick slash at his attacker's face.

"Void Tempest!"

With the hood falling away from being cut into pieces, the blonde Gardios was partially stunned to see a youthful, feminine face glaring back at him in the darkness; orange eyes lit like the glowing coals from the fireplace.

The doors were flung open, and a small squadron of soldiers rushed into the room, brandishing war axes and imperial knight swords. "Count Gardios!" They chorused together, clearly panicked to see their Lord alone with an unknown attacker. Blood ran down her white skin, and before they could utter another word, she raised her sword again.

"I'll kill you!" She shrieked, and lunged towards him. But he's seen it before, he knows all too well – he moves his blade upwards to deflect her –

The sound of a hundred thousand drums exploded into existence, before momentarily blinding every occupant of that room in a flash of light.

And she disappeared.

* * *

Rain. It continued to pour down from the skies as if God couldn't put a stopper on his tear ducts.

It was cold and wet. Lying face down in a puddle of mud and rainwater, she spluttered at the taste of the earth and weakly pushed herself up, face burning from a painful sting. The wound was still fresh, and she could taste the sticky blood mixed with soil from where she had face-planted herself so elegantly in. Choking out a breath of air, she looked around tiredly. This wasn't the Gardios Manor. This wasn't even Grand Chokhma.

So where on earth was she?

Huffing slightly, she got to her knees. There was nothing but silence and deep fog around here. The sky continued to cloud over, and the visibility was hard to decipher upon first glance. There was a slight sour and rotten smell in the air; something that she couldn't quite put a finger on exactly what. And the terrain seemed rather flat – how unusual for a landscape to form…

…Until she tripped over something heavy and nearly cracked her skull open against a nearby chunk of stone debris. Scrambling back, the female assassin blinked away the rain from her eyes when she realised in a twist of shock that she had stumbled over a corpse.

It was a corpse of a young male that had been partially eaten away; his remnants already decaying into the earth.

Trying to force herself not to vomit at the sudden wave of nausea that hit her, she hobbled away from the stench of death, and slowly found that she was surrounded by the ruins of a village that had somehow been wiped out. The destruction looked fresh; around a few days old and yet the bodies of the villagers that resided here were already returning back to whence they came from; the earth. Collapsing beside a nearby house that had its roof blown off and the walls stained red with blood, she briefly wondered what terrible tragedy had befallen upon this town.

The rain washed away the blood on her face, but the cut was still slightly deep. She angrily recalled that brief moment when she swung back just in time when his blade came at her and slashed her across the face and cut into the bridge of her nose. It was painful. But it was nothing as painful as her failure to uphold the task she had been given.

And that was the failure to assassinate the Count of Gardios.

A sharp howl of a black wolf resounded in the distance. She got up, shivering in the chill. The growls and snarls grew louder and closer. It began to click in her mind. Whatever killed the villagers weren't the monsters – at least, not initially. It was something else that must have wiped them out, and now this village was like an all-you-can-eat buffet for the surrounding wildlife.

_Monsters._

Drawing out her stiletto, she twirled it in her hand and held it in a reverse-switch grip tightly, holding it close to her heart. Monsters can't belittle her; they won't _faze_ her. But the sheer number of corpses would definitely attract a lot more foes than she could bargain for…

But even so, her primal instincts are telling her to fight.

Fight her way through, and survive.

She made the first move and lunged towards the oncoming horde of black wolves.

As the gloomy, cloudy afternoon fell into an early depression of dusk, Imperial Empire soldiers spilled into the area of carnage. Bodies were so badly mangled, mauled, and eaten to the point that they could only attempt human verification on certain corpses. Equipped with bodhi Blastia in the form of bangles, belts, and rings, the soldiers made quick work of the remaining monsters that lingered in the area.

A young man with blonde tresses that tapered off into short spikes dismounted his steed, observing the destruction with his own eyes. His jaw tightened at the atrocity of the sight, and his brow furrowed in frustration.

"How could this happen…? What on earth happened to the barrier Blastia?"

Death was seeping everywhere along with the thick fog that was starting to settle down. It was almost too much to bear.

"S-Sir, we found a survivor!" One of the men investigating the site called in the distance, and Flynn Scifo hurried forwards, one hand resting over the handle of his sword just in case there were monster ambushes in the area.

As he stopped to a halt, his armour clinked noisily and he panted slightly at the sight of a figure cloaked in a dirty, long rag that wrapped around her body thinly. A mop of dark chestnut hair obscured her face and made her look like a young woman that was thrown out onto the streets to starve.

"She's unconscious?" Flynn inquired, and the guard simply shrugged. "I checked for a pulse; she's still breathing. I only assume she is so." The knight answered vaguely before lifting her up roughly. "Oy! Can you hear me? Can you stand on your own?"

Upon his words, a set of orange eyes popped open, and within a momentary flash the knight crumpled to the ground, cradling his arm. A spot of blood appeared from beneath his armor pieces, and the girl backed away, brandishing her stiletto menacingly. Her face was streaked with blood, but rather not from the various scratches and cuts she had received from fighting away the monsters; but rather, a long, sweeping gash that was almost as wide as the width of her face from her previous encounter with a particular blonde swordsman.

A blonde swordsman. He was standing before her, his face identical – yet somewhat, somehow… there was a look of confusion in his eyes.

No matter. He was the one.

She gaped back at the Acting Commandant, before gritting her teeth into a snarl, eyes flashing with anger. "Gaillardia Garan Gardios! I've found you!" She screamed, rushing forwards into a wild frenzy, nails digging into her own skin –

And her face collided against the palm of the blonde's hand, drawing fresh blood from her wound. The fatigue eventually settled in when she dropped to the ground like a sack of potatoes, out cold from the injuries she had sustained from the day so far.

Her last, fading thoughts was that she wasn't in Grand Chokmah anymore.

Was she even in Auldrant?

Eyes closed; but not before the image of that man she swore to kill appeared before disappearing into a blurry haze of darkness.

* * *

Author's Note: So before you guys start to jump onto the train and point out a few inconsistencies that I might have let slip, I'll just let you in on some details. First off, I played Vesperia through the Japanese PS3 port; I don't have an Xbox, and I know the language sufficiently well enough to play a JRPG so I purchased the Japanese PS3 port. The story will be set in a slightly alternate universe with some themes of world-dimension-crossing; as it was in the case of our main protagonist dimension-skipping from the world of Auldrant (Tales of the Abyss © 2005) to the world of Terca Lumireis. That means additional content from the PS3 port will be present in the game, both minor and major. One major additional is that of the PS3-exclusive playable character Patty Fleur.

Second, if you haven't noticed it yet, this story will be FlynnxOC with a dash of something special.

I hope you guys will enjoy it in the future.


	2. The Krityan & the Capital

**The Persimmon Tree  
**_written by mistral soul_

* * *

The smell of tangerines, sunlight burning through her closed eyelids, and the sound of a breeze fluttering through an open window filled her senses when she came to.

Stretching herself upwards weakly, a thick bed sheet was laid over her body – obfuscating warmth still lingering within the stretches of the fabric. Her clothes were stripped off; instead, a simple white nightgown was thrown thinly over her naked body, and a look of terror and fury came to her eyes once she had realised that someone had undressed her while she was unconscious. Immediately she swept the covers off, and swung her legs over the side of the bed. Her toes only barely touched the cold floorboards before the bedroom door opened abruptly, startling her.

A tall, slender male entered the room. He was donning a similar uniform to the ones she had seen previously on those strange soldiers she had encountered, she had abruptly realised as her eyes fluttered over the stripes of light and deep cyan-blue upon his vest. But he wasn't the one who shared the same face as Gardios; hardly, even. The stranger seemed to be much more willowy, as if he was built for speed rather than strength.

And then there were those strange pair of ears that were long and pointed outwards in an odd manner.

"Ah, awake now, are you?" He lightly asked with a bemused smile, closing the door after him. A pair of pine-green tuffs of what seemed like a mixture of fur, hair, and feathers trailed after him, planted closely near the nape of his neck. Aside from his strange ears, he was notably tanned and had slightly almond-shaped purple eyes that looked… uncanny.

She shifted further from him, looking around fervently for her things. Her silver stiletto blade was laid upon her clothes, which were neatly folded into a pile. It smelled clean, too.

"Easy there! No need to pick up the dagger now, alright?" He laughed lightly, and she faltered, staring back at him distrustfully. To prove his words were true, he removed his officer's sword from his hip belt and threw it gently upon the floor, disarming himself. Fingers twitched, and the stiletto was lowered.

The man sighed, and smiled. "That's a good start. I hope you can speak, because there's a lot of things we – er, well I – will need to ask of you."

She hesitated, thinking for a moment. For the present being, perhaps it was better to play it safe. Having no notation or idea of where she was or what on earth exactly happened when the Gardios Manor fled her surroundings, it seemed like the most rational choice to make. The last thing she needed was killing another person from a worthless scuffle when she can simply weasel her way out with words.

She nodded quietly. "I can talk."

"Good. Let's start off with your name." He pulled up a chair from the nearby table and sat down in front of her.

Her name? She had too many. "Rass. Rass Lionyel." She quickly answered. It was a lie, of course.

"Rass? Odd name." He commented with a raised brow, but thought no further about it. "Anyway, Rass – good to meet you. My name is Jaxen; and I'm part of the Imperial forces of the Empire." He introduced himself briefly with a charismatic smile – it seems he was all none but practised in this, it seems to her. She was definitely certain that this man was more than here to help get her life back on track.

If that was even possible.

"Do you know what happened to you? Your village was destroyed when its barrier blastia ceased to function for an unknown reason."

Her eyes lit up with questions at the terms. "Blastia? I don't know what you're talking about. And the Empire? I don't recall the Malkuth Empire sending forces to help the needy." She responded coldly, and Jaxen looked slightly surprised at her reaction. He shifted in his seat, looking perplexed. "Do you have _any_ recollection about what happened?"

"Not particularly, only that I was in Grand Chokmah before I fell unconscious and found myself in some lying outskirts of, what I suppose, that village you had mentioned before." Her answer came again, as tart as before.

It was Jaxen's turn to look doubly confused. It seems the both of them aren't exactly riding the same wavelength.

"I'm sorry, but I've never heard of such a place as Grand Chokmah. Is it in the Yulzorea continent?" He questioned again, and Rass swallowed hard; her fears were beginning to solidify. She had heard of stories of beings being 'spirited away' and never to be found again, but she never knew that it was possible to be whisked away into an entirely new _dimension_. If she could even call it that.

'_Calm down. You don't know if this man is crazy, or if you're still in Auldrant.'_ A voice whispered inside of her, and she breathed in deeply. That was right. She had never seen Auldrant in its entirety; rather, she had never traveled that extensively to know where each and every place existed.

"Let me see a map." She demanded, and Jaxen silently obeyed; he unfurled a large charter's map after retrieving it from a list of supplies in the drawer across the room.

After he laid it out on top of the table, and she took a look.

Landforms of completely different sizes and shapes were scattered across the world. It was just… simply impossible to identify that this world was Auldrant. The more she took in, the more her eyes widened in disbelief. This was impossible. It was most certainly impossible.

And then, on the very top in fine print, were the words, _"Terca Lumireis"._

"…Terca… Lumi…reis?" She echoed, the name sounding far too foreign for her liking. She stood up abruptly, and glared back at Jaxen who stared back at her.

"Today is ND 2004, Month of Efreet, Day 36. That _is_ the correct date, am I correct?" Rass could feel herself starting to sound shrill. Jaxen was a mistaken man. He made that map up, and he came here to delude her into some pitiful insanity in which he would partake great pleasure from. That was the only answer she could justify for all the lapses and inconsistencies they have somehow barrelled through so far.

But he merely glanced at her as if she was simply mistaken for something simple, and shook his head slowly. "On the Lunar Calendar, today should be the Fourth Month, Day 24. What sort of calendar system are you using? It sounds old." He curiously asked, anxiously awaiting an answer from her. Rass gaped back at him, mouth falling open.

At least he didn't treat her as an adult would dismiss a child.

"This isn't right." Failing to answer him, she muttered and staggered back onto the bed in a numbing slump. Her stiletto fell to the floor in a clatter, but she paid no heed to her fallen weapon. Her head was pounding; and so was her heart. So hard and so fast, that it felt like it would burst at its seams.

And it wasn't the fluttery sort that made you feel good.

"It looks like you need a bit of time." Jaxen replied cautiously, observing her behaviour with a raised eyebrow. Rass merely nodded absentmindedly, staring off at the distance through the windows. Jaxen sighed, picked up his sword, and walked towards the door, hand gripped the handle tentatively.

"Whenever Lieutenant Scifo comes back from his investigation in Capua Nor, you should go meet and give him your thanks." He called back over his shoulder, and Rass's head snapped sideways in attention, looking slightly disturbed from her silent musings.

"Scifo? Lieutenant? Why?" She asked flatly, and Jaxen opened the door with a wry smile at her rudeness when she answered him. "Lieutenant Scifo was the one who decided to spare you and bring you back to the Capital after you stabbed one of our men." She gripped her bed sheets at his words. Flynn Scifo. So that was…

"Oh, and you should take some time off to lose some steam. You're a very angry person in my opinion." Jaxen honestly confided before shutting the door. Rass swallowed, and listened to his footsteps fade from outside. Once he was out of earshot she rushed to the door, fingers twisting at the handle.

The damn bastard actually locked her in.

"I swear by Lorelei, I'll have your head for this." She cursed under her breath before glancing at the windows.

An idea formed in her head.

* * *

Dressed in her tattered rust-coloured one-piece dress with a pair of simple black woollen tights covering her legs, Rass had managed to escape Jaxen's surveillance when she had climbed out of her bedroom window. So while she may as well be labelled as a thief at this point of the story, she never exactly scaled vertical walls three stories high in her field of experience nor did she manage to do the reverse; it was safe to assume that her landing flight didn't go as smoothly as planned. No matter – the large house she found herself residing in was generous to plant a few wealthy-looking bushes beneath her view and they provided more than enough padding to catch her fall.

The city she found herself in was not unlike Grand Chokmah. With the exception of things being generated by Fonims (she wasn't even sure what these crystal-looking catalysts are), life in this so-called Capital city seemed relatively normal; at least, it seemed to be in her eyes.

Continuing to stride past the various streets, she soon found herself detaching away from the nice, clean-swept streets to what seems like a much busier, dirtier downtown neighbourhood. Children ran freely in the open, chasing one after another, without a care for the world. Or perhaps they felt the need to liberate themselves so that they could prevent the reminders of their poverty. Rass saw their smiles; and yet, while it chilled her to feel that familiar sense of sympathy with these children, there was a soft tenderness that framed their beauty and it was particularly captivating.

"You don't seem to be from these parts." A woman's voice mused aloud, startling Rass from her daydream reverie. Straightening up, the dark-haired girl reverted back to her uptight demeanour; looking rather uncomfortable to be talking to a completely random stranger upon the street. The woman laughed, and slapped her wooden bandwagon filled with fresh vegetables and fruit she was selling.

"No need to look offended! We don't get many visitors, you see." She mused aloud with a wink, and Rass crumpled her brow. She couldn't quite understand what sort of tactic this woman was trying to use with her. Did she want her to buy something?

Fingers wound tightly around the money pouch that hung from her waist, strapped onto a simple leather belt. The woman shook her head, looking as if she knew all too well. "Now, now miss; it isn't like I'm here to try to get you to buy somethin' from this little old lady! If anything, if I can help you with anythin', it's my pleasure to." She smiled a toothless grin, and Rass hesitantly nodded back. She seemed kind enough. Something she wasn't used to.

"I'm just… taking a stroll." Rass finally provided, looking somewhat troubled over what to say exactly. "I'm er, a bit new around town."

The woman smiled lightly. "That's mighty fine. Welcome to Zaphias! Er, well, to the lower quarters anyway. There ain't much to see here, but if you're anything like the rest of us pack rats, we like to get the whole community together every once a while for some warm supper by the country bar." Rubbing her elbow affectionately, the woman cocked her head slightly, surveying Rass a little closely. "So what's your name, little lady?"

"Rass." She answered simply.

"Rass, eh? It's a little strange, but easy on the tongue. I like it." The woman laughed cheerfully. Placing her hands on her hips, she clicked her tongue satisfyingly. "Rass, nice to meet you darlin'. The name's Cheyenne; if you're ever in trouble, just come to the shop on the second floor of the inn and find me. I'm usually ther' ta help a hand out."

A small, wisp of a smile appeared on Rass's face. "T-Thank you. I'll remember that."

Before she could utter another word however, the ground shuddered briefly before a roaring explosion ripped through the area. Turning around in surprise, Rass found herself and other civilians interrupted by a pillar of water that burst upwards into the air – and then…

"What's going on!" Cheyenne demanded to no one in particular, but the sound of water only answered her cries. In due time, a front of water came washing wildly through the streets, tearing down vendors and stands and sweeping people away. Having only a moment's worth of time to realise what exactly was going on, she was drenched in water when the wave hit, slamming her back against a stone wall as it continued to course its way through the lower quarters.

A man came running, gasping for air as he tried to battle against the fierce flow. "Cheyenne! Cheyenne, the water fountain's broken! That mage we hired to fix the Aque Blastia left the job half-done and now the whole town's a mess." He bitterly reported. Rass picked herself up, walking unsteadily against the stream. "W-What's happened now?"

"The Aque Blastia! You know, that thing that helps draw water for the fountain?" The man snapped back at her as if she was some childish nuisance, swatting her away before turning back to Cheyenne again. "Anyway, we need a few hands to help keep this place from overflooding."

Cheyenne nodded gravely. "Alright, I'll come with you." Giving Rass a fleeting last glance, she then followed her friend down the flooded streets, towards that large pillar of water billowing upwards. Rass bit her lip. What could she do? She didn't know how to conjure magic artes. Her senior officer back in Kimlasca was a Fonist, so removing such a large body of water using Splash or Tidal Wave wouldn't be a problem.

But then again, ever since she came to, some things just weren't right. Even now and then, given a certain amount of concentration, one would be able to feel their fon slots – but for Rass, that simple feeling was gone. As if this place was barren; void of Fonims.

What could she, a simpleton, do?

Gripping her sodden dress tightly in her hands, Rass bit her lip tightly and stared at the distance. She was human; she has arms, legs, hands; she has a mind. And a heart. Running full force against the water, Rass raced after Cheyenne, her mind numbing from all the complexities she began to defenestrate out of her mind's windows.

* * *

Jaxen came back later that day, holding a tray of food. A bun, a platter of greens, a bowl of hearty soup and slices of ham and cheese were toppled generously for his prisoner. Knocking lightly on the door, he cleared his throat. "Miss Rass, your dinner's here." When no one answered, he knocked again, this time slightly impatient. It was becoming clear that she wasn't going to answer, and thus with a sigh, the Krityan fished out the key and unlocked the door.

And he found the room empty. The open window was more than a giveaway of what had happened. Chuckling lightly, Jaxen set down her dinner by the table before glancing at the window.

"Miss Rass, you're going to get me in a lot of trouble, you know."

He found her later after doing a quick search throughout the city. Most of the nobles and middle class citizens could care less about a scraggly-looking young woman, but the helpful tool shop owner pointed him the direction towards the lower quarters. Proceeding to the lower quarters almost immediately, Jaxen was slightly shocked to find the downtown slums in a watery mess; people were shouting, trying to salvage what they could find sunken in the water.

And Rass was in the middle of them all, her brow twinkling with sweat as she helped a fair few others dislodge a sunken wagon caught stuck between the cracks of the buildings. Jaxen walked over, his steel boots splashing loudly in the water, and paused in front of her.

"You could have left a note, at least." He smiled coolly, and the girl slipped and fell underwater in shock. Spluttering back up to the surface, she threw the young Krityan a glare before struggling back up. "Shut up, it's your fault you left the windows open."

"My, my." Jaxen lightly commented at the sight of things. "It seems like you've gotten into more trouble just hardly after you've arrived. Please, think of my position." Rass stubbornly lugged the last few inches of wet wood out of the irrigation ditch before glumly making it back to Jaxen's side. Patting her on the head as a master would pet his dog, he then gestured to the inclining slope that led them back to the middle quarters.

"Shall we, my lady?"

She punched him in the shoulder before angrily huffing her way up the street. Jaxen merely laughed as he rubbed his shoulder, following after the girl.

* * *

No canon appearances yet; I thought I should introduce a secondary original character to keep things interesting while developing the story a little better. The next chapter will skip forwards to the aftermath of Ragou's mansion, and Flynn's continued investigations in Capua Torim. I would love to hear from you about the pacing of the story, and generally any other inputs or concerns you may have.


End file.
